Aronow joins the agency from Bingham McCutchen, where he has spent the past four and a half years as a partner in the firm’s Washington D.C. office. The Yale grad also served two separate stints as a partner at Arnold & Porter and worked at Heller Ehrman from 2004 to 2008.

His private practice experience aside, the new GC is no stranger to government work: From 1995 to 1999, Aronow was director of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Division of Enforcement. He also served a three-year term as a member of the National Adjudicatory Council of the National Association of Securities Dealers (now the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), an independent regulator of U.S. securities firms.

Newly elected SEC Commissioner Elisse Walter appointed Aronow to replace the agency’s outgoing general counsel Mark Cahn, who returned to the private sector at the end of 2012.

“I’m truly honored to re-enter public service as the General Counsel at an agency with such a storied history and critical mission of investor protection and effective market oversight,” Aronow said in a statement.